| Let
me say this first: I am not a fan of Edison Chen, in fact, I dislike
the guy a lot. He seems to have this permanent smirk on his face that
becomes overbearingly like smugness to me. I just think he stinks.
Okay, got that out of the way.
Final Romance is a love story. No marks there.
Is it any good? Well, if you like cheesy love stories, then I guess
yes, it is pretty good. If you can't stand these mushy stories about
luurve, then you'd probably hate it. I'd let you figure it out.
Jean (Strang) has been entrusted by her late sister
to take her ashes to the Yusawa mountain hotel in Japan and place
it in the hands of a guy named Wu. Unknown to her, Wu had already
died in a car accident, but had time to ask his brother Dik (Chen)
to take his ashes to the same hotel and give it to Jean's sister.
Both Jean and Dik, along with their friends Faye and Sena (Sam Lee)
all stay at the hotel and wait until Valentine's Day when they will
bury their siblings' ashes underneath a tree as a last respect.
But somehow, their get-together has caused Jean
and Dik to fall in love with each other. Jean's father (Simon Yam)
is concerned for the welfare of his daughter, and comes to Yusawa
to take her home to Hong Kong. He is a wealthy businessman and does
not want Dik anywhere near Jean. Meanwhile, Jean has already been
betrothed to Dr. Peter Chan, and the wedding is soon. Dik, already
accepted into a Japanese motor-racing team, decides to ditch his
career to win back Jean. Twists and turns are imminent in any love
story, and we realise that the death of Dik's brother was no accident.
It seemed that Jean's father had paid someone to kill him, and now
he is willing to do the same to Dik.
Can Jean and Dik be together? Is love eternal?
I can't say that I disliked this film, because it was entertaining
enough. Okay, I can't stand Mr. Smug Edison Chen, but I concede
that he gave a convincing performance as Dik, although the character
he played acted a bit like a dick sometimes. Amanda Strang played
Jean far too sentimental for my liking, and often she lacked a personality.
The bickering between Sena and Faye were comical, which provided
some humour into this syrupy tale.
The locales used in Japan were good, especially
the snow-capped mountain scenes (basically the first half of the
picture), but when the film shifted to Hong Kong, I thought it had
lost its originality and romance. It became too heavily involved
in the who-done-this and what-should-I-do-now syndrome. There was
less spark in the second half of the film, which I thought made
the film suffer as a result. The ending seemed a bit tacked on without
good thought, and spoilt what was to be a good romantic film.
Overall, worth getting out for your female companion,
but otherwise, stay clear unless you fancy a dose of saccharine
potion.
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